So... some of you may know me but for most of you I'm a total stranger. Reason for this is my lack of artivity on this site and... well, modding in general. I'm so happy for the Assembly Summer event that takes place in Finland once a year, that motivates me to do something worth writing for. I'm not so interested on modding computer cases. Reasons for that are many and we shouldn't go into that matter this time. For the past two Assemblys I've build gaming machines (Arcade cabinet and a digital pinball) and this year is not going to be much different. Well, the size is going to be... I really have to thank vcoleiro1 for his initial build. When I saw his cabinet build I wanted to make something similar. He based his work on Gameboy SP and that is exactly what I'm going to replicate here. Again, thanks man for you efforts! So... let us begin. I didn't have exact measurements for the units vboleiro1 made so I just penciled out a rough plan and what I wanted to build. First cuts being made here... Here are all the pieces that are needed to make one cabinet for the GBA SP. I selected to use pirch plywood (6 mm) that has a film layed on both side. The surface is too smooth for the glue to stick to so it is important to sand it a bit for better adhesion. Controls The joystick I'm using is made by Grayhill Inc. You can pick one up from the Digikey. The product code is 04A-B01. More about this later. Buttons are just some momentary-on ones that I found from the Ebay. It was difficult to compare different buttons as none of the sellers indicate how much force is required to operate them. This makes a lot of difference when gaming with the unit... Well, hopefully the ones that I picked up will do the trick. And here is the unit after day 1. Day 2. It was not time to pick out the color for the cabinet. Boy this is tough! I wen't through a lot of different themes and at the moment I'm planning on going with Mario thme... Unit primed. Using my moms hair dryer to fast forward the drying time. All dried out and waiting for a lick of paint. I decided to with black as I feel it can handle the widest range of themes of any other colors. I used a cheapo dual action airbrush for the job. All in all the surface seems ok although I'm not too concerned about it as most of it should be covered by grahics in the end. I'm hoping to use these acrylic pieces as coin doors but they might not work... I had to cut them now as I don't have the access to a band saw before the project should be finished... So... this is where the project currently stands. Main problems at the moment are the graphics (what theme should I go with) and how to add at least two more action buttons to the cabinet. I'm open to suggestions and ideas on where to take this project (to the dump?!). Hopefully I manage to finish this one and get some of you to build something similar for yourselves as well.
Hehe, thanks. Yes, it is too small to be really practical but at the end of the day, that was not the point (the small size was but not the "playability"). Many people have commented why didn't you use this and that adapter to make it compatible with a regular monitor etc. but then again, if I would have wanted to play from a PC screen, I would have used a PC for the build. Like in that larger arcade cabinet that I did the last time.
